Japan admits buying allies on whaling

Japan uses overseas aid to buy support for the resumption of commercial whaling, a senior government official admitted yesterday in unusually frank comments that have provoked fury among anti-whaling groups.

The head of the fisheries agency, Masayuki Komatsu, said minke whales had become the "cockroach of the ocean" and he saw nothing wrong in using Japan's vast economic power to persuade countries to vote against restrictions on hunting them.

Confirming an accusation of aid-for-votes that has often been levelled by conservationists, but never previously acknowledged, he said Japan had to use the "tools of diplomatic communications and promises of overseas development aid to influence members of the International Whaling Commission".

The IWC, whose annual meeting opens in London next week, is the battleground between opponents and proponents of whaling. Commercial hunts are banned under a 15-year-old moratorium, but Japan still kills 500 minke whales annually in the name of scientific research.

For most of the past decade Japan has been in a small minority of countries seeking a resumption of commercial whaling, but in recent years the balance of power in the IWC has started to swing in its favour, with the inclusion of a number of poor island nations dependent on Japanese cash.

Last year, six Caribbean countries, the Solomon Islands and Guinea voted with Japan on almost every issue. With their support, Japan was able to block attempts by Australia and New Zealand to establish a whale sanctuary in the South Pacific.

Mr Komatsu, who is in London for next week's meeting, said it was only natural that Japan should use diplomacy and aid to gain influence in the IWC.

"Japan does not have military powers, unlike the US or Australia," he said in a radio interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "In order to get appreciation of Japan's position, of course, it is natural we must resort to those two major tools."

Opponents in the IWC accused Japan of exploiting poorer nations in its attempt to overturn the moratorium.

"This confirmation of Japan's tactics shows the desperate lengths it will go to in order to maintain whaling," said Helen Clark, the prime minister of New Zealand. "Japan must surely be embarrassed by today's revelation from one of its own senior officials."

Japan's anti-whaling groups expressed outrage. "This is a source of shame for Japan," said Nanami Kurasawa of the Dolphin and Whale Action Network. "It's outrageous that our taxes are being used in this way."

The Japanese government denied that its overseas aid was geared towards vote-buying. "Japan provides economic assistance to 150 nations including both supporters and opponents of whaling. The purpose is to help economic development."